Science Verse

This book teaches science while at the same time is full of fun, providing lots of laughs. Many of the rhymes are take-offs of common songs and poems kids may recognize, such as “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost or “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. Some are short but still so clever, as this one on the dual form of light:

"Hey diddle diddle, what kind of riddle
Is this nature of light?
Sometimes it’s a wave,
Other times particle . . .
But which answer will be marked right?"

Similarly, the complexity of natural phenomena is elucidated in “What’s the Matter?” in which the authors begin by explaining:

"Miss Lucy had some matter.
She didn’t know its state.
She only had three choices,
So tried to get it straight. . show more . ."

My favorite is this riff on “The Night Before Christmas”:

"'Twas the night before Any Thing, and all through deep space,
Nothing existed -- time, matter, or place.
No stockings, no chimneys. It was hotter than hot.
Everything was compressed in one very dense dot.

When out of the nothing there appeared with a clatter
A fat guy with reindeer and something the matter.
His nose was all runny. He gave a sick hack.
"Oh, Dasher! Oh, Dancer! I can't hold it back!"

He huffled and snuffled and sneezed one AH-CHOO!
Then like ten jillion volcanoes, the universe blew.
That dense dot exploded, spewing out stars,
Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, and Mars,

Helium, hydrogen, the mountains and seas,
The chicken, the egg, the birds and the bees,
Yesterday's newspaper, tomorrow's burnt toast,
Protons and neutrons, your grandma's pork roast.

The universe expanded. The guy said with a wheeze,
'Who will ever believe the world started by sneeze?
So let's call it something much grander, all right?
Merry BIG BANG to all! And to all -- Gesundheit!'”

Whimsical illustrations by Lane Smith complement each poem, and a CD of Scieszka (“rhymes with Fresca”) reciting the poems is also included.

Evaluation: This utterly delightful book of science rhymes will delight readers of all ages. show less

After being cursed with science verse, a young boy imagines science themed poems about a number of topics, from the water cycle, to black holes, states of matter, evolution, the food chain and many more. Most of the poems parody a well known rhyme, song or poem (the parodies are indicated at the end of the book); for example, “Gobblegooky”, about nutrition and food additives, closely resembles Lewis Carroll's “Jabberwocky”. The non-realistic, colorful illustrations visually correspond to the concept in the poem, and are crammed with science details, such as a model of an electron, or a depiction of the planets and moons of the solar system. Though educational in theme and topic, the poems are irreverent in the way kids love: one show more speculates that dinosaurs were wiped out because they were bored to death by teachers. Nonsense such as a teacher-caused dinosaur apocalypse is always presented absurdly enough that no reader would accept silliness as scientific fact. There are some in-jokes that older kids with more science background will be able to better appreciate (for example, instead of a candlestick, Jack jumps over a combustion reaction), but the poems are a fun way to introduce readers to concepts and pique interest in science and poetry. This fun and unconventional take on science class would be good for upper level elementary students. show less

This book was really enjoyable. I loved it for the fact that it's a collection of poems. Each poem's title was the science topic that's being discussed in the poem. Although the poems were well written, I still believe that Math Curse was more effective in engaging the reader and introducing new concepts. Many of the poems were about educational science topics, but for someone who may be unfamiliar with some of those topic, it might be easy for them to get lost in the fun of the wordplay within the verses instead of learning something about science. I liked that the story arc turned out to be a wild dream of science madness from the stories main character. The collage illustrations were great once again! I also noticed that in the class show more of the main character for Science Verse, there is a special appearance of the main character from Math Curse. show less

Possibly one of the most genius books I've ever seen. It's a book of poetry. About science. And the poems are all based on famous poems or song lyrics. Which you don't know until the end, unless you recognize them, which I did. "Gobblegooky" is based on "Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll. "Dino-Sore" is based on "The Raven," by Edgar Allan Poe. "Astronaut Stopping by a Planet on a Snowy Evening"... you get the idea.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jump over the combustion reaction of O2 heat fuel to form CO2 light heat exhaust.

And, on top of everything, it's illustrated by Lane Smith who is brilliant and one of my very favorite illustrators. Really, this book couldn't be more awesome.

His teacher said, "You hear the poetry of science in all,"
which gave him a science curse, then asleep he falls.
Life's macros and micros come alive in his dreams,
Escape the science curse? He wont it seems.

He dreams of everything
like planets and dark matter,
food chains, and amebas,
and of space getting fatter.

Recognizable tunes-- limericks, songs, and famous poem puns,
this book all about science is far from ho-hum.
This little boy fell asleep in class and
dreamed of poems about evolution and mass.

Poem after poem in class is dreamt.
Then awoken by teacher, no purposeful attempt.
No more poems! For in regular sentences he thinks,
In great disbelief, he stares and then blinks.

For a test on the planets is the next day,
but the little dreamer is show more prepared anyway.
Next is art class where Mr. Picasso states,
All connects to art, to everything it relates.

Oh no! show less

This book is a collection of, you guessed it, Science Verse! I've had this since I was a child, and it was one of the few things that got me interested in doing science. I was a big literature kid, so if you have students who are more on the literature side of things than on the science side of things, this is a great way to get them a bit more motivated. A lot of the poems here are based on real poems, so you could tie it into more of a literature look by examining the original poems. It's also nice that the science poems don't take themselves too seriously, so kids can get a laugh out of it. Dino-sore was one of my favorites because it poked fun at the idea of every grade teaching about dinosaurs rather than exploring new science show more topics. I think it's a great book to get students thinking about science. It's not one I would read to students from cover to cover, but rather I would use the poems for examining specific things. If you happen to be doing evolution, there's a poem for that. Want students to think about the properties of matter, or the properties of light? There's poems for those as well! It's a great diving board to get into more science. show less

"You know, if you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of science in everything." The main character is cursed with science verse! From evolution, the water cycle, to dinosaurs, the food chain, and anatomy, the poems depict science almost as an art. Although educational, the poetry is fun and interesting and would be a great companion to any science lesson, and would, in turn, act as an interdisciplinary connection.